Hi there
Was just wondering is there such a thing as the perfect computer. One that will stop telling me that I'm out of memory and trashing my work that took hours to build (usually saved most of it) but this does not help the rendering problem.
I'm Running Windows XP Pro - Pentium4 3.2GHz - 2gig Ram.
What is the best combination to start rebuilding.
Thanx/Ralph

there is no perfict computer. most of the problems I have are vues fault. your set up seems about right.

Wow.. I'm running Vista with a Pent.D at 2.80GHz and 1gig of ram and have no problems.  I'm also running FreeRam XP Pro which is a freeware memory  manager , you can check it out here: www.download.com/FreeRAM-XP-Pro/3000-2086-10070530.html

You could always do what I did.

Dual Opteron mother board. AMR2 sockets
8 gigabytes of RAM
OS:  Server 2003 R2  SP2
RAID 5 (10 Seagate 500GB SATA2 drives)

Works very well for rendering and I haven't run out of memory yet.

A bit pricey but I don't have any problems

Best of luck...

or you could go out and rent a supercomputer form a lab some where.

OK then - What size & quality do you render your images at. I seem to have no trouble at 720x576 72dpi Broardcast Quality but if I go 1440x1152 Broardcast memory runs out.
Boy 8gig Ram would be neat , better do a bank job.

1024 x768 usually works best for most work I do in Broadcast.  

It would appear that the size of your monitor has some effect on the Rendering.  If the monitor is large enough that the render does 100% there seems to be a quicker render than if it is 50% and interpolated to the screen.  I get different render times between the two???

The best computer is a Mac Tiger 10 with dual Ops, 16 gigs of PC 667 DDRII, and dual 8800 SLI's if you have the $5 grand.

When I render with Vue 5 Pro, I use 2K frames as my standard output.  I tend to render stuff for other people that use Vue, since I do not have anytime to do 3d for myself anymore.

A 2K frame lets people shrink stuff down to what they want to use.
Also the 2K frame is a standard when doing movie work.

More RAM and Dual CPU's is the best thing you can do for Vue.  I have noticed that true duals or quads (not multi-cores) do give you better perfromance.  From my testing a dual-core is about 25% slower than a true dual cpu system.  Make sure any mother board you get can take lots of RAM.  I can expand my RAM to 32 gigabytes, I just don't want to spend all that cash right now.

Best of luck...

Well all the software that I own is Windows orientated so have to stay PC.
So building a new computer from scratch is going to be the plan. This is where I will need some input as what is the best without starving myself to pay for it.
Motherboard in relation to Graphics - to Ram - to CPU etc. so where do you start.??
Is there a Web Site dedicated to building Graphic orentated systems??

http://www.intel.com/cd/personal/computing/emea/eng/build/index.htm

http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/

http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/pc-information/what-do-I-need/pc-toolkit/

Those URL's are just a few you can find.  As far as books go there are plenty to be had.  The most difficult is trying to decide on what Manufacturers parts you want. 

Start with the Motherboard you want and the type of CPU that will fit the board.  Then buy your hardware according to the mobo' s tests and reccommends.  Each manufacturer tests with specific hardware, mem etc., to ensure it will work as discribed.  the biggest mistake is putting a lot of parts in that are not related and will not work with each other.

Dell and all of the others spend a lot of time testing system builds to make sure that everything is compatible. 

I think the two most important things are a high quantity of memory and a 64 bit OS. After that, the processor speed will "only" affect your render speed, but not what your computer is able to render so it will depends on your budget.
As an exemple, I changed my computer a few days ago and my current configuration is able to render 20 poser character (each one with a different set of texture of course) + vegetation + various objects without any problem (total memory usage, including windows = 7.8 GB).
For reference :
OS : XP 64
QX6700 overclocked to 3.4
8 gb memory G.Skill (5.5.5.15 800 mhz, you don't really need faster memory if you put 4 sticks since most motherboard won't be able to run them at their faster speed with all slot used)
Asus P5N32-e sli
and a "old" graphic adapter, GeForce 7900GTX (The graphic adapter has no impact on your render speed, you only need good enough to work comfortably in the viewport)
Other items are more or less irrelevant and won't have any impact on your computer ability to handle big scenes.
I used to have a very similar configuration but with two opteron instead, it was slightly slower, but was able to render the same scene complexity without problem

Ab

Thanx for all the feed back.
Have got my computer back up to speed (but can still crash Vue by working too fast), Downloaded Windows Framework updates & Driver updates for my Raedon 9550 Graphics card.
Still working on building a new computer but now will not rush into it.
Thanx/